How much sleep do I need? Sleep needs by age
Enter an age to see the amount of sleep experts recommend, what that means in 90-minute cycles, and the bedtime that fits your alarm.
Age
Adult (18–64 years)
7–9 h
Source: AASM/SRS: 7 h or more; NSF: 7–9 h
That's about 4.7–6 90-minute cycles.
Recommended sleep by age
Children and teens: American Academy of Sleep Medicine consensus (Paruthi et al., 2016, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine), endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Adults: AASM & Sleep Research Society (Watson et al., 2015) recommend 7 or more hours; the National Sleep Foundation (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015) gives 7–9 h for adults and 7–8 h for 65+. Newborns: National Sleep Foundation.
How many hours of sleep do teenagers need?
8 to 10 hours a night for 13–17 year olds. Puberty shifts the body clock later, so many teens genuinely aren't sleepy until 11 pm or later — which collides with early school starts. The CDC reports that most US high-school students fall short of 8 hours on school nights.
For a teen with a 6:45 am alarm, nine hours plus 15 minutes to fall asleep means lights out around 9:30 pm. If that's unrealistic, protect a consistent wake time and keep screens out of the bedroom.
Is your personal need different?
The ranges describe what most healthy people need. A simple check: on a relaxed holiday with no alarm, after the first few days of catch-up, how long do you naturally sleep? That's a good estimate of your own need.
Regularly needing much more than the range, or feeling unrefreshed despite enough hours, is worth discussing with a doctor. So is consistently managing on much less — very few people are genuine "short sleepers".
Short on hours lately? Tally it with the sleep debt calculator, then plan tonight with the bedtime calculator.
Questions people ask
How much sleep do adults need?
7 hours or more per night on a regular basis, according to the AASM and Sleep Research Society. The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7–9 hours for adults 18–64.
How much sleep does a teenager need?
8–10 hours per 24 hours for ages 13–17 (AASM consensus, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics).
How much sleep do older adults need?
About 7–8 hours. Sleep tends to become lighter and more broken with age, but the need for sleep does not disappear.
Is 6 hours of sleep enough?
For most adults, no. Six hours is below the 7-hour minimum recommended by sleep medicine bodies, and studies of chronic 6-hour sleep show cumulative declines in attention even when people feel they have adapted.
Do naps count toward sleep needs?
For babies and young children, yes — the recommendations include naps. For adults, a nap can offset a short night but is not a replacement for regular night-time sleep.